The World Meteorological Organization predicts La Nina will continue through January and is expected to usher in drier and wetter conditions than normal in different parts of the world.The latest seasonal forecasts indicate the La Nina event will cause drier than normal conditions in much of East Africa and lead to increased rainfall in southern Africa. Central Asia is likely to see below normal rainfall earlier than usual.The WMO reports some of the Pacific islands and the northern region of South America will see some of the most significant precipitation anomalies associated with this year’s La Nina event — a cooling of ocean surface water along the Pacific coast of the South American tropics that occurs on average every two to seven years.Some countries and regions are particularly vulnerable to changes in weather patterns.WMO humanitarian expert Gavin Iley told VOA the Greater Horn of Africa was an area of particular concern.“As we know, it is already being beset by problems, with locust infestation,” Iley said. “And generally, the models are suggesting below normal rainfall for quite a large portion of the Greater Horn of Africa. So, obviously that could have a number of impacts … in areas like Somalia. … So, we always need to keep an eye on the latest outlook.”WMO said governments can use weather forecasts to plan ways to reduce adverse impacts in climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture, health, water resources and disaster management.WMO Deputy Director of Climate Services Maxx Dilley said governments can use La Nina forecasting to adapt their strategies to the changing weather patterns.“You can imagine in the agricultural sector that some crops will do well under wet conditions and others will do better under dry conditions,” Dilley said. “And there are agricultural management practices that can be adjusted to take account of whether it is expected to be wet or dry.”Dilley said WMO increasingly is trying to tailor these forecasts to specific concerns, such as food security or human health. For example, he said, wet conditions alone do not provoke outbreaks of dengue fever or malaria. He said temperature, humidity and vegetation create the conditions for mosquitoes to breed.So, rather than just giving a rainfall forecast, he said, meteorologists will provide a forecast that is correlated with these diseases and can be used for dengue fever or malaria control.
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GUERNICA, ARGENTINA — Argentine police clashed with a group of protesters on Thursday while evicting them from makeshift homes on a contested property south of the capital, Buenos Aires. Six police officers were injured and at least 30 people were arrested, according to authorities.  Hundreds of families had been living in shacks on the land in the town of Guernica for more than three months, in a reflection of the growing poverty and lack of housing for many people in Argentina. The pandemic and lockdowns aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 have aggravated the country’s economic problems.The owners of the occupied land in Guernica had gone to court to reclaim the property.  Many people left peacefully when security forces entered the property early Thursday after negotiations between authorities and the occupants failed. Some resisted, throwing stones at police.  Police then demolished the homes, some of which were made of wood, cardboard and sheet metal.  Some 600 families had previously signed an agreement with authorities to leave the property. In return, they received building materials and money to pay rent.
 
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Peru is extending the restrictions aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus for another month. The state-owned Andina News Agency said Wednesday President Martín Vizcarra announced in a television address that the government approved the decree extending the state of national emergency through November. The restrictions include a nighttime curfew, a ban on social gatherings and mandatory wearing of face masks in public. Vizcarra also announced during the address that 4.2 million households are expected to have received their second government stimulus of $223 by next week. Vizcarra said nearly 3 million households have already received their second Universal Family Bonus. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Zeta – now a tropical storm – has moved off the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and is likely to restrengthen into a hurricane as it moves out over the Gulf of Mexico later Tuesday.  In its latest report, the hurricane center says Zeta’s maximum sustained winds are at about 100 kilometers per hour (kph), just below hurricane strength. Forecasters expect the storm to move out over the warm waters of the gulf, strengthen later Tuesday, then pick speed as it moves towards the southeastern U.S. coast.The forecasters say on its current trajectory, Zeta will likely come ashore in eastern Louisiana or western Mississippi late Wednesday or early Thursday. The storm is likely to be a category one hurricane by the time it strikes the coast.  If Zeta does come ashore in Louisiana, it will be the third major storm to hit the state this year, following Hurricane Laura in August and Delta earlier this month. The state has spent a cumulative total of at least three weeks in the National Hurricane Center’s forecast zone for a possible hurricane this season.  Hurricane Zeta Makes Landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula  Hurricane Zeta pounds Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with strong winds and heavy rains    Zeta is the 11th hurricane and record-tying 27th named storm to form this season.  With more than four weeks left in the season, the record may fall. It is only the second time the hurricane center has gone this deep into the Greek alphabet to select names for a storm. The previous Zeta was in 2005 and marked the last storm of that season.
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Authorities in Buenos Aires have loosened coronavirus restrictions, allowing people inside businesses, including restaurants, bars and gyms for the first time in seven months. Under the new guidelines, businesses are allowed up to 25 percent of their capacity, with assurances they provide proper ventilation. The Associated Press reports the easing of restrictions comes as new COVID-19 cases have trended downward in recent months in Argentina’s capital. Authorities say coronavirus cases have not dropped in other areas of the country and people in Buenos Aires are urged to remain vigilant in following safety protocols. Argentina has confirmed more than 1,100,000 coronavirus cases and at least 29,301 deaths. 
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Hurricane Zeta pounded Mexico’s northern Yucatan Peninsula with strong winds and heavy rains late Monday into Tuesday. The U.S.-based National Hurricane Center said Zeta made landfall north of Tulum with maximum sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour. A hurricane warning is posted for the resort island of Cozumel, and from Punta Allen to Progreso, Mexico. People in the Mexican resort city of Cancun are also bracing for Hurricane Zeta. Forecasters say Zeta is expected to regain strength Tuesday as it moves into the Southern Gulf of Mexico on a northerly pattern toward the United States, where a hurricane watch is in effect for the metropolitan New Orleans area and Morgan City, Louisiana, east  to the Mississippi-Alabama border.   People in the U.S. central Gulf Coast will begin seeing the effects of Zeta by Tuesday night before the storm moves inland toward Georgia Wednesday then into the southern Appalachians Wednesday night and the Mid-Atlantic region on Thursday. Zeta is the second storm to strike Mexico this month. Hurricane Delta hit the Yucatan Peninsula in early October, downing trees and knocking out power to thousands but no reported deaths. Hurricane Delta also made landfall in the U.S. Gulf coast state of Louisiana, where Hurricane Laura hit in late August, killing at least six people. 
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Chileans poured into the country’s main squares on Sunday night after voters gave a ringing endorsement to a plan to tear up the country’s Pinochet-era constitution in favor of a new charter drafted by citizens. In Santiago’s Plaza Italia, the focus of the massive and often violent social protests last year which sparked the demand for a new magna carta, fireworks rose above a crowd of tens of thousands of jubilant people singing in unison as the word “rebirth” was beamed onto a tower above.   With more than three quarters of the votes counted, 78.12% of voters had opted for a new charter. Many have expressed hopes that a new text will temper an unabashedly capitalist ethos with guarantees of more equal rights to healthcare, pensions and education.   “This triumph belongs to the people, it’s thanks to everyone’s efforts that we are at this moment of celebration,” Daniel, 37, told Reuters in Santiago’s Plaza Nunoa. “What makes me happiest is the participation of the youth, young people wanting to make changes.”   Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera said if the country had been divided by the protests and debate over whether to approve or reject plans for a new charter, from now on they should unite behind a new text that provided “a home for everyone.” The center-right leader, whose popularity ratings plummeted to record lows during the unrest and have remained in the doldrums, spoke to those who wanted to keep the present constitution credited with making Chile one of Latin America’s economic success stories.Referendum on a new Chilean constitution, in Santiago, Oct. 26, 2020.Any new draft must incorporate “the legacy of past generations, the will of present generations and the hopes of generations to come,” he said. He gave a nod to fears that the high expectations placed in a new charter cannot be met, saying: “This referendum is not the end, it is the start of a road we must walk towards a new constitution.” As votes were counted on live television around the country, spontaneous parties broke out on street corners and in squares around the country. Drivers honked car horns, some as revelers danced on their roofs, and others banged pots and pans. The flag of the country’s indigenous Mapuche people, who will seek greater recognition in the new charter, was ubiquitous.   Four fifths of voters said they wanted the new charter to be drafted by a specially-elected body of citizens – made up of half women and half men – over a mixed convention of lawmakers and citizens, highlighting general mistrust in Chile’s political class.   Members of a 155-seat constitutional convention will be voted in by April 2021 and have up to a year to agree a draft text, with proposals approved by a two-thirds majority. Among issues likely to be at the fore are recognition of Chile’s Mapuche indigenous population, powers of collective bargaining, water and land rights and privatized systems providing healthcare, education and pensions. Chileans will then vote again on whether they accept the text or want to revert to the previous constitution. The National Mining Society (Sonami), which groups the companies in the sector into the world’s largest copper producer, said it hoped for “broad agreement on the principles and norms” that determine the sector’s coexistence with Chilean citizens and that the regulatory certainty that have allowed the sector to flourish would continue. 
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Newly formed Tropical Storm Zeta strengthened Sunday in the western Caribbean and will probably become a hurricane before hitting Mexico’s resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula and the U.S. Gulf Coast in coming days.Zeta was the earliest named 27th Atlantic storm recorded in an already historic hurricane season.The system was centered about 275 miles (445 kilometers) southeast of Cozumel island early Sunday evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.The storm was nearly stationary, though forecasters said it was likely to shear the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula or westernmost Cuba by late Monday or early Tuesday and then close in on the U.S. Gulf Coast by Wednesday, but could weaken by then.The storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph), and forecasters said Zeta was expected to intensify into a hurricane Monday.Officials in Quintana Roo state, the location of Cancun and other resorts, said they were watching the storm. They reported nearly 60,000 tourists in the state as of midweek. The state government said 71 shelters were being readied for tourists or residents who might need them.The government is still handing out aid, including sheet roofing, to Yucatan residents hit by Hurricane Delta and Tropical Storm Gamma earlier this month.Zeta may dawdle in the western Caribbean for another day or so, trapped between two strong high pressure systems to the east and west. It can’t move north or south because nothing is moving there either, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy.“It just has to sit and wait for a day or so,” McNoldy said. “It just needs anything to move.”When a storm gets stuck, it can unload dangerous downpours over one place, which causes flooding when a storm is over or near land. That happened in 2017 over Houston with Harvey, when more than 60 inches (150 centimeters) of rain fell and 2019 over the Bahamas with a Category 5 Dorian, which was the worst-case scenario of a stationary storm, said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.While Zeta was over open ocean Sunday, Jamaica and Honduras were getting heavy rains because the system is so large and South Florida was under a flood watch, McNoldy said.But once Zeta eventually gets moving, it won’t be stalling over landfall, Klotzbach said.The Hurricane Center said Zeta could bring 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain to parts of the Caribbean and Mexico as well as Florida and the Keys before drenching parts of the central Gulf Coast by Wednesday.A 2018 study said storms, especially in the Atlantic basin, are slowing down and stalling more. Atlantic storms that made landfall moved 2.9 mph (4.7 kph) slower than 60 years ago, the study found. Study author James Kossin, a government climate scientist, said the trend has signs of human-caused climate change.Zeta is also in a dangerous place to stall. The western Caribbean is “where storms can cook” and rapidly intensify because of the deep, warm waters, like 2005’s Wilma, Klotzbach said. However, the National Hurricane Center was not forecasting rapid intensification for Zeta.The lack of steering currents also meant wide spread of possible landfalls when Zeta eventually heads north to the Gulf Coast. The hurricane center said it could make landfall anywhere from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards urged his state’s citizens to monitor the storm, and the state activated its Crisis Action Team.On Sunday, a hurricane warning was called for the Yucatan Peninsula from Tulum to Rio Lagartos, including Cancun and Cozumel, while a tropical storm warning was in effect for Pinar del Rio, Cuba.Zeta broke the record of the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005, according to Klotzbach.This year’s season has so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet after running out of official names.Zeta is the furthest into the Greek alphabet the Atlantic season has gone. There was also a Tropical Storm Zeta in 2005, but that year had 28 storms because meteorologists later went back and found they missed one, which then became a “unnamed named storm,” Klotzbach said.Additionally, Hurricane Epsilon was moving quickly through the northern portion of the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters said it would become a post-tropical cyclone later Sunday. Large ocean swells generated by the hurricane could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions along U.S. East Coast and Atlantic Canada during the next couple of days.
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Amid a year of contagion and turmoil, Chileans turned out Sunday to vote on whether to draft a new constitution for their nation to replace guiding principles imposed four decades ago under a military dictatorship, and early returns gave the “yes” forces a big lead.The country’s conservative government agreed with the center-left opposition to allow the plebiscite after the outbreak of vast street protests that erupted a year ago in frustration over inequality in pensions, education and health care in what has long been one of South America’s most developed nations.The Electoral Service said Sunday evening that of the first 1.3 million ballots counted, 77.5% favored a new charter and less than 22.5% were opposed. Among the 60,000 Chileans living abroad who voted in 65 nations, the vote was 86% for a new constitution and 13% against, officials said. About 15 million Chileans were eligible to vote.Recent polls indicated heavy backing for a new constitution despite opposition from conservative groups., and center-right President Sebastián Piñera said after voting that he assumed the measure would be approved.“I believe the immense majority of Chileans want to change, modify our constitution,” he said.If the measure is approved, a special convention would begin drafting a new constitution that would be submitted to voters in mid-2022.Chile’s current constitution was drafted by the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, and was sent to voters at a time where political parties had been banned and the country was subject to heavy censorship.It was approved by a 66%-30% margin in a 1980 plebiscite, but critics say many voters were cowed into acceptance by a regime that had arrested, tortured and killed thousands of suspected leftist opponents following the overthrow of an elected socialist government.“I think that many people went to vote out of fear,” said political scientist Claudio Fuentes, who wrote a book about that plebiscite titled, “The Fraud.”“The current constitution has a flaw of origin, which is that it was created during the military dictatorship in an undemocratic process,” said Monica Salinero, a 40-year-old sociologist who supports drafting a new charter.The free-market principles embodied in that document led to a booming economy that continued after the return to democracy in 1990, but not all Chileans shared.A minority was able to take advantage of good, privatized education, health and social security services, while others were forced to rely on sometimes meager public alternatives. Public pensions for the poorest are just over $200 a month, roughly half the minimum wage.Luisa Fuentes Rivera, a 59-year-old food vendor, said hopes that “with a new constitution we will have better work, health, pensions and a better quality of life for older people, and a better education.”But historian Felipe Navarrete warned, “It’s important to say that the constitution won’t resolve the concrete problems. It will determine which state we want to solve the problems.”Claudia Heiss, head of the political science department at the University of Chile, said it would send a signal about people’s desires for change, and for a sort of politics that would “allow greater inclusion of sectors that have been marginalized from politics.”Conservative groups fear the revamp could go too far, and endanger parts of the constitution that have helped the country prosper.“The people have demonstrated saying they want better pensions, better health, better education. and the response of the political class” is a process that won’t solve the problems and will open a period of uncertainty,” said Felipe Lyon, 28-year-old lawyer and spokesman for the group “No, Thanks” that opposes the change.The decision to allow the vote came after hundreds of thousands of Chileans repeatedly took to the streets in protests that often turned violent.The vote was initially scheduled for April, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed some 13,800 Chileans, with more than 500,000 people infected by the new coronavirus.Officials trying to ensure voters felt safe barred infected persons or those close to them from the polls, and long lines formed at voting places. Voters had to wear masks — dipping them only briefly for identification purposes — and brought their own pencils.The manner of drafting a new constitution was also on the ballot. Voters were choosing between a body of 155 citizens who would be elected just for that purpose in April, or a somewhat larger convention split equally between elected delegates and members of Congress.
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Chileans will vote on Sunday on whether they want the country’s Pinochet-era constitution torn up and replaced by a fresh charter drafted by citizens, a key demand in protests that erupted last year.The fiery anti-government protests over inequality and elitism in one of Latin America’s most advanced economies broke out last fall and resumed with the easing of coronavirus lockdowns.Voters have 12 hours beginning at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) to cast their ballot.Citizens can decide whether to approve or reject a new constitution and whether it should be drafted by a specially elected citizens’ body, made up half of women and half of men, and indigenous representatives, or a mix of citizens and lawmakers.Opinion polls suggest a new charter will be approved by a significant margin. All eligible Chileans from the country’s population of 18 million are automatically registered to vote, but voting is optional.People with COVID-19 have been told to stay away from voting stations on threat of arrest and prosecution.Control points have been set up at least 20 meters (22 yards) from polling place entrances where officials will conduct identity spot checks to ensure people are not on the quarantine list.”The right to vote of an infected subject puts at risk the right to health of thousands of people,” Attorney General Jorge Abbott told regional staff in an email.Soldiers, ubiquitous on Chilean streets since the declaration of a state of emergency during the protests last year and again with the outbreak of COVID-19 in March, will oversee the process inside polling stations while police will guard outside.The current constitution was drafted by dictator Augusto Pinochet’s close adviser Jaime Guzman in 1980, and has only been tweaked by successive governments to reduce military and executive power. 
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Tropical Storm Zeta formed early Sunday off the coast of Cuba, becoming the earliest named 27th Atlantic storm recorded in an already historic hurricane season.The system was centered about 400 kilometers south-southeast of the western tip of Cuba, forecasters with the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in a 2 a.m. EDT advisory.Zeta was stationary, located near the Yucatan Peninsula about 415 kilometers east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and a tropical storm watch was in effect for Cozumel and for Tulum to Rio Lagartos, Mexico.The tropical storm had maximum sustained winds of 65 kph, forecasters said. The system was expected to reorganize and move to the north-northwest later Sunday, skirting past Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday before entering the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.Zeta broke the record of the previous earliest 27th Atlantic named storm that formed Nov. 29, 2005, according to Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.This year’s season has so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet after running out of official names.Forecasters said Zeta could bring 10 to 20 centimeters of rain to parts of the Caribbean, Mexico, southern Florida and the Florida Keys through Wednesday. Isolated totals up to 30 centimeters were possible.
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An international treaty banning nuclear weapons has been ratified by a 50th country — Honduras — allowing it to enter into force after 90 days, a U.N. official said Saturday.”Today is a victory for humanity, and a promise of a safer future,” Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement.Other NGOs also welcomed the news, including the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a coalition that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in bringing the treaty to fruition.”Honduras just ratified the treaty as the 50th state, triggering entry into force and making history,” ICAN said in its tweet.The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — which bans the use, development, production, testing, stationing, stockpiling and threat of use of such weapons — was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in July 2017 with the approval of 122 countries.It is now expected to enter into force in January 2021.The clutch of nuclear-armed states, including the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, have not signed the treaty.However, campaigners hope that its coming into force will have the same impact as previous international treaties on land mines and cluster munitions, bringing a stigma to their stockpiling and use, and thereby a change in behavior even in countries that did not sign up.
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Prominent opposition activist Leopoldo López has abandoned the Spanish ambassador’s residence in Caracas and left Venezuela after years of frustrated efforts to oust the nation’s socialist president, his party said Saturday.The 49-year-old former Caracas-area mayor has been holed up at the ambassador’s residence since a failed military uprising he led in April 2019 aimed at ousting President Nicolás Maduro. He has been jailed, under house arrest or in a foreign embassy refuge for nearly seven years.In a statement from Popular Will, the party López founded, leaders confirmed he had left the country to continue his work from abroad in a decision they deemed “best for the country and the fight for Venezuela’s freedom.””After seven years of persecution and unjust imprisonment inside Venezuela, Leopoldo López is still not totally free, like all Venezuelans, so long as there exists a dictatorship that violates the human rights of the people,” the party said.It is unclear how López left the ambassador’s residence, given the heavy state security presence permanently stationed outside the property. Travel by land has grown increasingly difficult because of widespread fuel shortages. Filling up a vehicle with gas can take hours if not days, and checkpoints manned by security forces have proliferated across the country.Efforts to continueIn a message directed to Maduro on Twitter, U.S.-backed opposition leader Juan Guaidó said his political mentor had gotten out of Venezuela by “evading your repressive apparatus.” He added that López’s efforts to remove Maduro would continue from abroad as part of the opposition strategy to garner international support.”Maduro you don’t control anything,” Guaidó wrote.There was no immediate reaction from Venezuelan authorities.López was sentenced in 2015 to nearly 14 years in prison after being convicted of inciting violence during anti-government protests in which three people died and dozens were wounded. He was released from prison and placed under house arrest after more than three years in a military jail.FILE – Juan Guaido, leader of Venezuela’s political opposition, talks to a journalist during an interview with Associated Press in Brussels, Jan. 22, 2020.Even from his confines, López has remained an influential figure in Venezuela’s opposition, advising Guaidó, who claims he is the country’s interim president because Maduro’s 2018 reelection was not legitimate.But after drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets last year, the opposition has struggled to regain momentum. Maduro remains firmly in control of the nation’s military and nearly all other government institutions.López’s flight is likely to be held up by the government as a trophy as it prepares to retake control of the National Assembly in December legislative elections that Guaidó has vowed to boycott. López had long stubbornly refused to leave, even when his wife and children fled to Spain last year.Dozens have leftHe would join dozens of anti-government politicians who have fled Venezuela over recent years, many leaving covertly to avoid potential persecution or jail time.”It’s probably the clearest sign that the continued opposition effort to unseat Maduro has floundered that a committed stay-in-Venezuela leader like Lopez has chosen to finally leave,” said Raul Gallegos, a Colombia-based analyst at the Control Risks consultancy.López pursued a strategy in 2014 known as “The Exit,” consisting of street protests months after Maduro was elected. The strategy failed and ultimately divided the opposition. That combativeness led to his arrest and conviction on insurrection charges branded a sham by human rights groups.FILE – Venezuela’s President Maduro touches a gold bar as he speaks during a meeting with the ministers responsible for the economic sector in Caracas, March 22, 2018.His hardline stance, backed by Washington, would ultimately come to dominate the fractious opposition, which rallied behind Guaidó. A follower of López, he had become congressional president and is now recognized by more than 50 countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader.The years López spent at a military prison, during which he read the works of Nelson Mandela and kept up a rigorous exercise regimen, solidified his image as a man willing to risk his own skin to rid the country of Maduro.He sought allies among his former jailers in the military and in 2019 reappeared on a highway overpass with a small band of national guardsmen calling for an uprising against Maduro. The putsch was easily quashed and López took refuge in the ambassador’s residence.Critics within coalitionSince then, López has struggled to maintain the same leadership. While Guaidó named him his cabinet chief, many in the opposition coalition, envious of his influence in Washington, sought to quietly undermine him, accusing him of having a messiah complex and failing to build consensus.His departure comes just days after Spain’s Ambassador Jesus Silva — who has been the dean of Caracas’ dwindling diplomatic community — was recalled by Spain’s leftist government to Madrid after serving for four years.Silva, a career diplomat, was a firm backer of López. But as a holdover from previous Spanish administrations who was once expelled by Maduro, he was less effective an interlocutor when Spain’s socialist government took power.Even as his whereabouts remained unknown, some opposition leaders were praising López’s decision to flee.”We await you in the diaspora to continue fighting for the freedom of all of Venezuela,” said Antonio Ledezma, a former Caracas mayor who himself fled in a risky trek by land out of the nation in 2017 after being briefly jailed on charges of plotting to oust Maduro.
 
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Chileans are poised to vote for a new constitution as they head to the polls Sunday.While the current constitution, which dates to Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, has helped Chile establish itself as one of the region’s most stable and successful economies, many in the country say they feel left out.Dissatisfaction has led to violent protests, starting last year with massive violence over a transit fare hike that left 26 dead, CNN reported. More recently, churches have been burned and hundreds have been arrested in widespread demonstrations.A new constitution, to be written by an elected citizen’s body, has been the main demand of the protesters, who say the current governing document favors private interests and gives disproportionate access to education and health care.Opponents of the new constitution say changing a document that has favored Chile’s economic success is a “leap into the void,” Reuters reported.Analysts say a new constitution could be more inclusive, but that promised social policies might not be able to be supported economically.Alejandro Werner, IMF Western Hemisphere director, told Reuters on Thursday a new constitution could usher in “a new era in which the main elements that generated the Chilean success story … are maintained in terms of economic growth, but complemented by a social inclusion agenda.”A potential risk, he said was “a multiplicity of social policies without macroeconomic support.”Sunday’s vote would decide not only if Chile would get a new constitution, but who would write it. According to CNN, a constitutional assembly would be chosen in April 2021 during municipal and regional elections. A new constitution would take more than a year to write, CNN reported.Polls currently show two-thirds of Chileans support a new constitution, Reuters reported.
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Warming relations between the United States and Brazil received a boost this week with an update to an existing U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens to Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo speaking during a press conference at the Boa Vista Air Base in Roraima, Brazil, Sept. 18, 2020.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed another mutual benefit from the relationship when he addressed a virtual forum organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opened by Bolsonaro.“To the extent we can find ways that we can increase the trade between our two countries, we can … decrease each of our two nations’ dependence for critical items” coming from China, Huawei headquarters building is pictured in Reading, Britain, July 14, 2020.Bolsonaro is recently reported to favor keeping Huawei out of his country’s telecom infrastructure, but China’s official media has reported that Brazil’s vice president welcomes Huawei’s participation in the country’s 5G network.The question of 5G “is a sensitive matter, which will be decided at the appropriate level in Brazil in a transparent and open way,” Forster told VOA.Who’s to build Brazil’s 5G network is “up for public auction,” he said, with some standards to be announced later this year and the auction to take place in 2021.Forster said his government will be “looking at the different aspects of the equation; there’s the economic aspect of it, the financial aspect of it, there’s also security aspect of it, there’s data privacy involved, legal security involved; no final decision has been made.”In the Chamber of Commerce forum, Pompeo said Brazil can serve as a potential “anchor” as the U.S. builds closer ties with “all of our friends in the Western Hemisphere and in South America.”David R. Shedd, a former acting director of U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, agreed, saying the signing of the trade protocol and other measures hold the potential for an “exciting new period” in U.S. relations with Brazil and its neighbors.With a U.S. presidential election less than two weeks away, however, Shedd told VOA that Brazil and the whole Latin American region have adopted a “wait and see” approach on certain key issues.While acknowledging he doesn’t know how Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Joe Biden might handle relations with Brazil, he said it is clear that a Democratic administration would pay much more attention to the environment.Peter Hakim, president emeritus and senior fellow at the Inter-America Dialogue, believes that if elected, Biden “will almost surely emphasize environmental concerns and worker’s rights issues, which will not find much resonance in Brazil.” 
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U.S. forecasters say Hurricane Epsilon has dropped in intensity after being upgraded overnight to a Category 3 storm on the scale that measures hurricane strength.Epsilon, now a strong Category 2 storm, is still expected to cause tropical storm conditions on the island of Bermuda.The latest report from the National Hurricane Center Thursday had Epsilon 385 kilometers east – south east of Bermuda, with maximum winds of 155 kilometers per hour. Epsilon is expected to miss Bermuda when it makes its closest approach Thursday or Friday.Forecasters say on Wednesday, when the storm rapidly intensified, its winds reached 185 kilometers per hour, leading to the upgraded designation. A U.S. Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft flew into the eye of the storm late Wednesday and found it to be 22 kilometers across and dramatically well-defined, an indication of the storm’s intensity.Epsilon became fourth major hurricane of the 2020 season, along with Laura, Teddy, and Delta, and the second major hurricane to form in October. Meteorologists say only six other years have seen two major hurricanes form in October and no season on record has had more than two.Epsilon had already set records for rapid intensification at its position and this late in the season Tuesday into Wednesday when it went from being tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane. It is also the 26th named storm to form this hurricane season.The storm is generating dangerous surf and rip currents conditions in areas ranging from the Bahamas and Leeward islands to the south and Canada to the north. 
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he has canceled a deal to buy a Chinese-developed vaccine against the coronavirus, a day after his health minister announced Brazil would purchase millions of doses of CoronaVac.Bolsonaro said Wednesday that the intentions of Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria, one of his leading opponents, were distorted, saying he already canceled the deal before Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello signed it.Pazuello said in a statement that there was “no commitment” to buy the vaccine, only a “non-binding memorandum of understanding between the health ministry and the Butantan Institute” to test and produce the vaccine.Bolsonaro, who said he would not let Brazilians be guinea pigs for the Sinovac drug, is promoting the purchase of another vaccine developed by Oxford University in Britain.Brazil is helping to test both of vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials.Meantime, The Wall Street Journal reports, a Brazilian health regulator says the clinical trials of the vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca PLC will continue although a volunteer died.Both Oxford University and AstraZeneca reportedly found no safety issues which warranted the trial being stopped.
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The National Hurricane Center says late season Hurricane Epsilon has become a strong Category 1 storm and has set some impressive records in doing so.Forecasters say Epsilon has maximum sustained winds of about 150 kilometers per hour (kph). At last report, the storm was still about 650 kilometers east to southeast of Bermuda and approaching. But forecasters say it is likely Bermuda will be sideswiped by Epsilon when it makes its closest pass sometime late Thursday.National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researcher Sam Lillo has been monitoring Epsilon’s progress over the last 24 hours and says what makes Epsilon significant is the speed at which it has strengthened. Lilo says early Tuesday, Epsilon was a 72 kph tropical storm; by early Wednesday, it had become a hurricane with 150 kph winds.Lillo says that no storm that far northeast has strengthened that fast so late in the hurricane season before. He noted seven other storms underwent rapid intensification this year, including the last three in succession, Gamma, Delta, and now Epsilon.Forming in the southern Caribbean earlier this month, Delta went from a tropical depression with 56 kph winds to a major Category 4 hurricane with 233 kph winds in just over a day — faster than any storm on record.Hurricanes undergo rapid intensification when there is the right combination of weak upper-level winds and warm ocean surface temperatures.This year’s hurricane season has had so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet for storm names after running out of official names.Forecasters say Epsilon is the 26th named storm to have formed in the Atlantic this year, and the earliest that a 26th named storm has formed in any given year. The previous record for a 26th Atlantic named storm formation was by November 22 — Delta in 2005. 
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The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Epsilon has strengthened into a hurricane, the 10th of the Atlantic season, as it approaches Bermuda later this week.In its latest report early Wednesday, the hurricane center said Epsilon was about 725 kilometers east to southeast of Bermuda and had maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour. It was moving toward Bermuda at about 22 kph, putting it at its closest approach to the island late Thursday.Forecasters said while there is a risk of a direct impact, it is likely to turn north before making a direct hit on the island. Nonetheless, a tropical storm watch is in effect for Bermuda, and residents have been urged to closely monitor the storm.This year’s hurricane season has had so many storms that the hurricane center has turned to the Greek alphabet for storm names after running out of official names.Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach reported this is the 10th hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. He tweeted that “only four other years in the satellite era (since 1966) have had 10-plus Atlantic hurricanes by October 20.”The other years were 1969, 1995, 2005 and 2017.Klotzbach also said Epsilon is the 26th named storm to have formed in the Atlantic this year, and the earliest that a 26th named storm has formed in any given year. The previous record for a 26th Atlantic named storm formation was by November 22 — Delta in 2005. 
 
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Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is taking part in Phase 3 trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine.  Venezuelan state television showed Zelaya receiving a shot of Russia’s experimental Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Caracas on Monday.  Venezuela is the first Latin American country to participate in the testing process.FILE – A Russian medical worker administers a shot of Russia’s experimental Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 15, 2020.Western experts raised questions over the Sputnik V vaccine’s readiness for mass trials, citing the fact that Russia had tested the vaccine on just a small sample group before launching widespread testing. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro discounted the criticism, expressing satisfaction Zelaya is taking part in the trials.  So far, Venezuela has confirmed more than 87,000 coronavirus cases and at least 736 deaths. 
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Argentina is now the world’s fifth country with more than one million confirmed COVID-19 cases.  Data collected by Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center shows the South American country has 1,002,662 total cases.  Argentina is in fifth place behind the United States (8.2 million), India (7.5 million), Brazil (5.2 million) and Russia (1.4 million).   The one million coronavirus cases in Argentina include 26,716 deaths.   The new figures from Argentina push the total number of worldwide coronavirus infections to more than 40.4 million cases, including 1.1 million deaths. FILE – Scientists and researchers work on a potential vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a Pfizer’s laboratory.Reuters news agency says U.S.-based pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German-based BioNTech have begun a combined Phase One and Phase Two trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine in Japan.  The study will recruit 160 people between the ages of 20 and 85 to take part in the study.   The United Nations Children’s Fund says it will stockpile 500 million syringes by the end of the year, and one billion by 2021, as part of its preparations for an eventual COVID-19 vaccine.  According to U.N. News, the stockpile of one billion syringes to support the agency’s coronavirus vaccination drive is in addition to the 620 million syringes UNICEF plans to purchase for its normal vaccination programs. UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore says the push to vaccinate billions of the world’s children against COVID-19 “will be one of the largest mass undertakings in human history, and we will need to move as quickly as the vaccines can be produced.” 
UNICEF is the world’s largest purchaser of vaccines, buying more than two billion doses annually for routine vaccination efforts against such diseases as measles and typhoid, as well as outbreak responses on behalf of nearly 100 countries.  A report in The Guardian newspaper says Chinese health authorities have found traces of live coronavirus on frozen food packaging.  The live virus was detected during an investigation of an outbreak in the eastern coastal city of Qingdao, marking the first time the virus in an active state has been detected on the outside of refrigerated goods. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has previously said there has been no evidence of COVID-19 infection through handling or consuming food.  Empty city center shopping streets are seen as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Galway, Ireland, Oct. 19, 2020.Ireland announced some of the strictest measures in Europe this fall to combat a surge in cases. The government told residents not to travel more than five kilometers from their home, closed nonessential retail businesses and limited restaurants and pubs to takeout only.      Part of Germany’s Bavaria region will go into a strict lockdown on Tuesday. Officials in Berchtesgadener Land district announced Monday that residents will not be able to leave their homes without a valid reason for two weeks. Schools, restaurants and hotels will be closed to stop the spread of the virus.     FILE – Coronavirus signs are seen in the city center as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues in Cardiff, Wales, Britain, Oct. 19, 2020.Wales became the second nation in Britain to lock down large parts of its economy, even as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson resisted calls to do the same throughout England. The Welsh government announced Monday it would close nonessential retail, hospitality and tourism businesses, beginning Friday.   Northern Ireland recently ordered new lockdown measures, closing schools for two weeks and shutting down many businesses, including bars and restaurants, for a month.     Poland’s government said Monday it is transforming its National Stadium in Warsaw into a field hospital to handle the growing number of COVID-19 cases.   The European Commission on Monday launched a system across the EU to link national COVID-19 tracing apps, beginning with COVID-19 trackers in Germany, Italy and Ireland.     In the United States, cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in almost every state, and an analysis by Reuters found the number of new cases in the past week rose 13% to more than 393,000, approaching levels last seen during a summer peak.    
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Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is taking part in Phase 3 trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine.  Venezuelan state television showed Zelaya receiving a shot of Russia’s experimental Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Caracas on Monday.  Venezuela is the first Latin American country to participate in the testing process.FILE – A Russian medical worker administers a shot of Russia’s experimental Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 15, 2020.Western experts raised questions over the Sputnik V vaccine’s readiness for mass trials, citing the fact that Russia had tested the vaccine on just a small sample group before launching widespread testing. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro discounted the criticism, expressing satisfaction Zelaya is taking part in the trials.  So far, Venezuela has confirmed more than 87,000 coronavirus cases and at least 736 deaths. 
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The Mexican government is set to extradite to the United States Jaime González Durán, one of the founders of the Los Zetas drug cartel. Duran, who has been in custody in Mexico for 12 years ranked third among the leaders  of the Los Zetas cartel behind Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano, who was killed eight years ago, and Miguel Treviño Morales, who was extradited to the United States nearly three  years ago. Duran is expected to face multiple charges in the United States, including crimes of conspiracy, drug trafficking of cocaine and marijuana and money laundering.  Duran, who is on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration most wanted list, is being held at a federal prison in Hermosillo, Sonora. By late Monday, the DEA had yet to release a statement in response the Mexican court clearing the way for Duran to brought the United States.   
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Bolivian presidential candidate Carlos Mesa of the Citizen Community party has conceded defeat to rival Luis Arce Catacora, candidate of the Movement Towards Socialism party, citing exit polls showing Arce with an insurmountable lead. Speaking Monday, Mesa said he recognizes that there has been a winner in the election and that it is appropriate in a democracy to recognize the victory. Mesa’s concession comes a day after the election, with the official count by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal expected in the next few days.  Exit polls revealed Arce obtained at least a 20-percentage point lead over Mesa, with third placed candidate Luis Fernando Camacho of the Creemos coalition garnering just over 14 percent of the votes. Meantime, the French News Agency reports exiled former president Evo Morales is suggesting he will return to Bolivia after the election victory by Arce, a former member of Morales’ cabinet.
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